SCIENTIFIC NOTES AND NEWS 



MATTERS OF SCIENTIFIC INTEREST IN CONGRESS.^ 



The third session of the vSixty-sixth Congress convened on December 6, 

 1920. 



Under a special rule adopted on December 14, the joint resolution (SJ. 191) 

 to create a joint commission on reorganization of the administrative branch 

 of the Federal Government was brought up for two hours' debate on that 

 date and passed by the House, having already passed the Senate on May 10. 

 The bill became Public Resolution No. 54 on December 30 without Executive 

 approval. The resolution requires the Committee to make a report in De- 

 cember, 1922. Mr. Smoot announced in February that the Committee 

 would do the work personally and would not turn it over to the Bureau of 

 Efficiency or any other governmental agency. Considerable shifting and 

 rearrangement of the scientific bureaus has been predicted as a probable out- 

 come of the reorganization movement. 



The House Committee on Patents recommended on December 10 that the 

 Nolan Patent Office bill (H.R. 119S4) be sent to conference, but unanimous 

 consent for such reference was refused in the House. Later, on December 

 14, the bill was sent to conference, and hearings were reopened by the confer- 

 ence committee in January. Section 9 of the bill, providing for the issuance 

 of patents to Federal employees, continued to meet with opposition from 

 commercial and industrial interests, but was retained in the bill. The House 

 agreed to the conference report on February IG. Opposition developed in 

 the Senate, and the bill did not reach final action before the end of the session 

 on March 4. 



The bill for Federal supervision of the nitrate plants (S. 3390), including 

 provision for research on the fixation of nitrogen, was made the unfinished 

 business in the Senate on December 15. After several debates and the 

 adoption of a number of amendments, the bill passed the Senate on January 

 14. The House took no final action. 



The American Society of Zoologists, at its annual meeting on December 

 28-30, 1920, passed resolutions protesting against the passage of that part 

 of H.R. 7785 (the scientific apparatus tariff bill) which abolishes the "duty- 

 free privilege" to educational institutions. Occasional protests against this 

 feature of the bill have been discussed in current scientific and technical 

 periodicals. This feature of the bill was brought up in a hearing on the 

 Fordney emergency tariff bill before the House Committee on Ways and 

 Means on February 14, and the sentiment of the Committee seemed to be 

 strongly in favor of eliminating the duty-free privilege on chemical glassware, 

 chemical porcelain and apparatus. The Fordney bill passed both houses, 

 but was vetoed by the President. 



' Preceding report: This Journal, 10: 423. 1920. 



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